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A Hermes in Ephesian Silver work on a Patera from Bernay in France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
Upon examining the rich collection of silver vessels and statuettes discovered at Bernay in the Département de l'Eure now in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, I came upon a silver patera (Pl. XXII.) with an emblema in the centre, upon which, in most delicate repoussé work, is the figure of a youthful Hermes, nude, with a chlamys hanging over his left shoulder and down by the side of his arm, a caduceus in his left hand and a purse in his right, in an attitude indicative of a slow walk, and with the head turned upwards.
The valuable discovery of this large collection of ancient silver was made on the 21st of March, 1830. A Norman peasant named Prosper Taurin, while ploughing his field situated in the hamlet Le Villeret, Commune de Berthouville, Arrondissement de Bernay, Département de l'Eure, came upon an obstacle which, instead of simply avoiding as his predecessors had done, he resolved to examine. Borrowing a pick from a labourer he removed what appeared to him to be a large pebble, but what in reality was a Roman tile. When this was removed he came upon over a hundred objects in silver which were deposited on some pieces of marl at a depth of six inches, weighing considerably over 50 lbs.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1882
References
page 96 note 1 Cf. Chabouillet, , Catalogue général des Camées, &c. de la Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris, 1858, pp. 418–457Google Scholar; Rochette, Raoul, Monuments d'Antiq. Figur. pp. 272Google Scholar, seq.; Journal des Savants, Août, 1830; Nouvelles Annales publ, par la sect. franç. del' Inst. Archéol. Paris, 1838; R. Leprévost, Mémoires de la Soc. des Antiq. de Normandie, t. vi.; Lenormant, C., Bullett. dell' Inst. di Corrisp. Archéol. 1830Google Scholar. Cf. also Quaranta, B., Di quattordici vasi d'argenti dissotterrati in Pompei, &c. Napoli, 1837Google Scholar.
page 97 note 1 Cæsar, , De Bello Gallico, vi. 17Google Scholar.
page 98 note 1 Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 1879, pp. 435, seq. Prof. Overbeck, in a foot-note to page 34, lib. iv. of the new edition of his Geschichte der Griechischen Plastik, objects to the literary part of my article, and seems especially to disapprove of the parallelism drawn between the art and age of Praxiteles, and the modern romantic period of literature, Shelley, De Musset, Heine. Professor Overbeck may possibly be right in considering Heine ‘sittlich faul’; but it may be questioned whether if he knew as much of Praxiteles, he would not apply the same epithet to him. It may be uncommon for archaeologists to compare the great past with the present, yet on some occasions it is all the same the duty of the specialist to translate, as far as truth admits, the dead past into terms of present life.
page 100 note 1 Cf. Curtius, E. in Arch. Zeit. 1873, p. 72, Pls. 65 and 66Google Scholar. Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus, Frontispiece, cap. vi. Overbeck, , Gesch. d. Gr. Pl. II. p. 95Google Scholar. The old temple of Artemis was destroyed B.C. 356. The new temple was immediately begun and probably completed about B.C. 323. Cf. Newton, , Essays on Art and Archaeology, p. 220Google Scholar; Curtius, E., Ephesos, Berlin, 1874Google Scholar.
page 100 note 2 Strabo, xiv. p. 641; Overbeck, Schriftquellen, &c. No. 1283.
page 100 note 3 Pliny, , N.H. xxxvi. 95Google Scholar; Overbeck, Schriftquellen, &c. No. 1172.
page 100 note 4 1873, vol. xxxv. No. 898, p. 51.
page 100 note 5 Thanatos, Berl. Winckelmannsfest Piogr. 1879, p. 37, &c.
page 101 note 1 Preller, , Griech. Mythologie, i. pp. 324, 325, seq.Google Scholar; Welcker, , Griech. Götterlehre, ii. pp. 449, 456Google Scholar, seq.
page 102 note 1 Cf. Preller, i. 338; Welcker, ii. 449, seq.
page 102 note 2 On another silver vase of the same collection (Chabouillet, Cat. No. 2822) there is a Hermes seated on a heap of stones with all these attributes surrounding him. A small bronze in the Bibl. Nat., given by M. Dupré. A bronze in the Louvre, No. 225, &c., &c.
page 102 note 3 N. H. xxxiii. i. 54.
page 102 note 4 Acharnians, 1180, seq.; the speaker is the servant of Lamachus.
page 102 note 5 M. C. Lecuyer at Paris procured some years ago a terra-cotta mould or stamp of a medallion in which a small projection corresponded to the hole for the wick of a lamp. Some years subsequently he found a lamp on which was this very medallion. A similar instance was shown me by Mr. C. Smith at the British Museum.
page 103 note 1 Pliny, , N. H. xxxiii. 157Google Scholar. Subitoque ars haec ita exolevit, ut sola iam vetustate censeatur usuque attritis eaelaturis, ne figura discerni possit, auctoritas constet.
page 103 note 2 Pliny, xxxiii. 154.
page 103 note 3 Paus. i. 28, 2.
page 104 note 1 Cf. Apollinar. Sidon, . Carm. xxiii. 503Google Scholar, Overb, . S. Q. 1189Google Scholar, Pliny, , N. H. xxxiii. 154Google Scholar, Overb, . S. Q. 1612Google Scholar.
page 104 note 2 Mr. C. T. Newton has directed my attention to an inscription found in the Great Theatre at Ephesus, and published in Mr.Wood, J. T.'s Discoveries at Ephesus, pp. 1–30Google Scholar. It chiefly records resolutions with regard to the munificent gifts of one Vibius. Salutarius to the temple of the great goddess. In this inscription distinct mention is made of three classes of gifts: money (named by the various coins) εἰκόνες, and ἀπεικόνισματα. Εἰκών distinctly means statue. It is not quite clear what ἀπεικονίσμα means. It most probably meant a copy of an εἰκών, but from the context of several passages in this inscription we must be inclined to consider it possible that the word was used in a general sense to mean all kinds of valuable figure-work of art (Bildwerke, not Bildnisse) that were not statues in the round. For instance, in the passage, 
with which something is to be done on the day of the feast of the goddess, we are reminded of the inventory of the treasury of the Athene Parthenos, in which were images and costly and beautiful vessels of silver. Whether ἀπεικόνισμα means the copy of a statue, or is here used as a general term for articles of value that are decorated with figures in relief—in both cases this Ephesian inscription is interesting in its relation to the Bernay patera, being a contemporary allusion to such silver works of minor art.